Week in Review: Who Does Our Work Actually Help?

Some suffer from depression. Others struggle with walking. Over half are women, and nearly 50% are from racial and ethnic minority groups. Approximately 40% come from households earning less than $50,000 per year.

All are users of telehealth, a commonsense Goldwater Institute healthcare reform that allows patients to access medical care from the comfort of their own home using a computer, smartphone, or landline phone. According to a just-released Goldwater Institute report, more than 20 percent of households in the Phoenix area are taking advantage of telehealth under the new law.

“This study shows that Goldwater’s landmark telehealth law is expanding healthcare services to some of the most vulnerable and under-resourced populations in the Phoenix area,” says Goldwater Institute Senior Policy & Research Analyst Amanda Hagerman, author of the new report.

Whether by pioneering the Right to Try or enacting America’s best telehealth reform, Goldwater is leading the nation in empowering patients to access the care they need, not the care the government says they can get. Now, lawmakers in other states should follow Goldwater’s lead and embrace 21^st century reforms that are appropriate for today’s technological age.

Read the report here.

Why Won’t Tax Bureaucrats Return Stolen $90 Million?

$90 million. That’s how much the government illegally stole from taxpayers in Pinal County, Ariz. Officials promised to give the money back—but nearly two years later, taxpayers still haven’t seen a dime. So, this week, the Goldwater Institute went back to court to demand state and county tax bureaucrats repay the money they illegally took.

Back in 2017, Pinal County officials schemed to impose a new sales tax that only applied to purchases of less than $10,000, meaning it primarily affected lower- and middle-income taxpayers. That’s illegal under state law, and when Goldwater sued on behalf of taxpayers, the Arizona Supreme Court agreed and struck down the tax.

Tax bureaucrats have thus far refused to return the stolen money. But as Goldwater told the court this week, the government has no right to keep money that it had no right to take in the first place.

Government keeps trying to illegally take Arizonans’ money—but Goldwater has scored numerous monumental wins for taxpayers—striking a death blow against Prop 208’s massive tax hike; enacting the nation’s lowest flat tax rate; and reinforcing Arizona’s ban on government subsidies for private businesses. We’ll never stop working to ensure Arizonans can keep more of their hard-earned money.

Read more here.

City Tramples on Small Business Owner’s Property Rights—So We’re Suing

Should your town be able to decide what you can do with your property? Government officials in Holbrook, Ariz., seem to think they have that kind of power, and a local small business owner is paying the price. The Goldwater Institute is suing the city on his behalf.

Anil Patel owns a motel in Holbrook and planned to sell his property to a buyer who wanted to turn it into temporary short-term lodging for low-income individuals. But the city council unanimously passed a new land-use ordinance that effectively made the sale fall through and greatly diminished the value of the property. Revealing the officials’ true motives, Holbrook’s mayor said the ordinance would provide “a little more control of who’s coming in.”

That’s illegal under the voter-approved Prop 207, which Goldwater wrote and helped pass to smashing success, ensuring Arizonans enjoy the strongest protections for property rights in the nation. So we’re suing the city for violating Goldwater’s Private Property Rights Protection Act, and we’re demanding just compensation for Anil. It’s simple: the government should not be in the business of telling Americans what they can and can’t do with their own property.

Read more here.